During the past few years, protective equipment manufacturers have attempted designing ice hockey gloves that offer a reduced resistance to the natural movement to which the hand is subjected when handling various objects, such as hockey sticks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,147 issued on Mar. 28, 1989 and naming Gazzano et al. as inventors, U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,739 issued on Feb. 6, 1996 and naming Cardinal as an inventor and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,243 issued on Apr. 30, 1996 and naming Hall et al. as inventors offer examples of attempts to design ergonomic hockey gloves. The contents of those documents are incorporated herein by reference. These designs, however, require a modification of the dorsal portion of the glove, i.e. the portion of the glove, opposite the palm that extends from the base of the fingers to the wrist. To increase the flexibility of the glove, fold lines on ribs are formed into that particular region of the glove. The provision of such flexibility enhancing structures is accomplished by locally reducing the amount of padding. That, however, can significantly weaken the protective covering the glove provides over the dorsal portion of the hand. The lessened protective behaviour in that area is a serious disadvantage since the dorsal portion of the hand is exposed and is often subjected to impact during a hockey game.
Another disadvantage of such prior art is that the sheaths of these gloves poorly fit the anatomy of the player. Indeed, the finger sheaths typically comprise a single joint near the articulation between the proximal phalanx and the middle phalanx. This reduces the amount of control the player can exercise over the hockey stick.
The prior art also fails to teach a protective glove having a finger sheaths designed to accommodate the natural position of the hand that is holding a hockey stick.
Thus, there is a need for a protective hockey glove which allows for a better stick handling and is more comfortable without unduly restricting the protection over the dorsal area of the hand. There is also a need in the industry to provide a protective glove with anatomically correct finger sheaths.